Digital Marketing by Epic Innovations
BzzAgent is in the business of harnessing WOM (word of mouth). Word of mouth (WOM)advertising is a powerful catalyst that supports both online and offline marketing efforts. Organic WOM works because it carries with it a high perceived credibility at a very low cost. BzzAgent jump starts this process, for a cost.
Amazingly, BzzAgent is highly selective when they choose their clients - they don't just take any company with a product they are trying to launch. This is not really what one would expect from a for-profit corporation. Clients, and their products, must be the right fit for BzzAgent (which helps ensure the success of the WOM program). BzzAgent rejects approximately 80% of potential clients. The logic behind this policy is that the network is more valuable than the client. Delivering value to BzzAgent's will - over the long run - benefit BzzAgent more than simply focusing on the client's needs. This is because the quality of the BzzAgent is a direct factor in the level of service that BzzAgent can provide its clients. In other words, if the network is poor, the results from any campaign will be so as well.
BzzAgent is providing a service very similar to Tremors, the Proctor & Gamble program designed to create buzz around both internal and external (non P & G) products.
Rather than just sending out product samples, BzzAgents helps its "agents" to give feedback, and to share their opinions of the product most effectively. Currently BzzAgent has more than 100,000 "agents".
Yet the BzzAgent is only as powerful as their agent profile is accurate. I easily signed up for BzzAgent as a 17 year old surfer (secretly hoping for a free wetsuit or skateboard!). Because signing up is nearly anonymous, it is very easy to "game" the system. I should note that I have yet to receive a free wetsuit.
It was recently forecasted that some savvy online marketers might build strong user groups profiles in the future, allowing them to sell access to their networks to online retailers. For instance, a person might participate in an online newsgroup, and then - with a strong profile in hand supported by months of unbiased forum activity - sell their 'opinions' to companies looking to embed products into certain online discussions and forums.
Microsoft and others are moving to prevent this through analytic means...how effective this will be remains to be seen.
The truth is that there may be little truth in unbiased online forum commentary.